Chapter 333: Jagged Roses
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Travelling for seven days in a row, Anfey and his group had seen so many death spirits. At first Anfey tried to uphold justice, killing all the zombies they saw. When the number of zombies they killed had reached a thousand, they were all tired, not physically, but mentally. Blavi had been more excited than others about killing zombies, but now he did not even want to kill zombies unless they posed a threat to him. He sluggishly shot out magic at a zombie when it posed a threat to him.
Their natures had changed little by little with the constant killing. Christian and Blavi had changed the most. Blavi, for instance, after he killed a group of zombies, liked to quietly look at the zombies as his achievements, although his achievements were just rotting corpses, not at all pleasant to look at. After releasing the magic, he would rush a group of struggling zombies, as casually as if he was just shaking the dirt off his clothes.
This kind of aloofness towards organisms only happened after many killings. Even though death spirits were special, it was undeniable they were one kind of organism, especially transformed from humans.
After killing for a long time, killing was not killing anymore. It was a way to express their desire. "Kill" definitely showed negativity, but it was neutral. It did not show whether a person killed for good or bad.
Before dusk, Anfey ran up a hill. He always had a good memory. He saw the Town of Moramatch from the hill. He had been away from Moramatch for a while and was prepared to see some changes. However, he was still shocked when he saw Moramatch from a distance.
It was not a small and quiet town anymore. It looked more like a military fort. A row of 20-yard tall thick wood poles around the town functioned as a fence. There were hooks with iron teeth on them as well. Of course, only Anfey was able to see these smaller things. His vision was way better than regular people. Even Master Swordsman Ernest admitted his vision was not as good as Anfey’s.
There were people on top of the fence. Some stayed in one place and looked like they were on watch. Some walked back and forth. They were the patrols. The town itself looked busy. Besides the original houses made with stone and dirt, there were camp sites with tents. People looked like busy ants from a distance. It almost looked like a big and populated city.
There was a tall pointed tower in the center of the town, about 80 yards high. A few people in mage gowns walked back and forth on the top of the tower. At 80 yards tall, the top of the tower should be really windy. However, it did not seem that way, since Anfey could not clearly see the hair on those mages moving.
"What is that?" Anfey asked quietly.
"It’s a Mage Tower," Lon answered.
"They built a Mage Tower?" Anfey thought it was unbelievable.
"How could you not know about it?" Lon asked.
The guards on the Mage Tower noticed the people on the hill. There was the blare of horns from the town.
"Uncle Ernest, it would not be fun if you scare them," Anfey said slowly.
"Are you saying…" Ernest smiled.
"There must be something wrong with Moramatch. Instead of scaring them and giving them time to hide everything, I’d rather have them believe that they could accomplish whatever they wanted to. It is just easier for us to figure it out."
"Sure," Ernest agreed casually. The sharpness on him had gradually disappeared. He did not look as powerful as before. Ernest just looked like a regular person now.
Anfey kicked his boots into the horse to signal the horse to run down the hill. The rest of the group hurriedly followed after Anfey. Anfey quickly approached the fence. Someone on the other side suddenly yelled, "Stop there!" Before he finished speaking, an arrow shot out and fell a dozen of yards ahead of Anfey, while the tail of the arrow kept shaking.
Anfey coldly looked up at the people on the other side of the fence. He was upset, since he had stopped right there. As he was thinking whether he wanted to break through the fence by force, another familiar voice rose, "Is that Master Anfey? Oh, my god. You are finally back. Open the door, hurry up!"
"We cannot open the door without Master Manlyn’s permission," a guard said.
"F*ck you. Do you know I can kill you right now if you not open the door. Open it. I will take all the responsibility," the familiar voice said.
Moramatch’s gate slowly opened as a dozen of people walked out. Anfey looked at the person walking in the front. He hesitantly asked, "Are you Ozzic?"
"It is me, Master." Ozzic kneeled to Anfey. He said respectfully, "Master, welcome back." Over a dozen of people behind Ozzic were shocked for a second before they also took a kneeled down to Anfey.
"Please stand up, stand up." Anfey immediately jumped off the horse. He strode over and held Ozzic up. He watched Ozzic’s face at the same time. He felt weird that Ozzic showed so much respect to him. When Shansa Empire had invaded, Ozzic had called other mercenary groups together to try to take back control of Transverse Mountain. They even wanted to take over Moramatch from Anfey, but they were kicked out by Anfey. They were attacked by Annunciata’s death spirits afterwards. Anfey and Suzanna saved them. Back then, Ozzic had reacted strangely. Anfey did not know if he felt awkward being saved by Anfey or upset because he realized the difference between reality and ambition. They hadn’t seen each other since.
Ozzic lifted his head and saw the couple from Shadow mercenary group. He was shocked for a second and asked, "Why are you guys back?"
"Master Ozzic, thank you for helping us last time." Long and Ling got off their horses at the same time. They sincerely bowed toward Ozzic. They looked so grateful for what ozzic had done for them.
"I would be happy if you do not blame me for that," Ozzic said bitterly. "I did not have other options. I had to follow the orders and stop you."
"We know," Long said with a smile.
"Whose order? Alice’s order?" Anfey looked serious.
"Master Alice would never give such an order." Ozzic shook his head. "It was the order from Manlyn. Right now he is the master of the Moramatch. Darn it. What am I talking about!" he said with a chuckle. "Master you are back. That guy will need to go now." Ozzic carefully watched Anfey after he said it.
"Manlyn. Who is he?" Anfey felt relieved first, since Alice had not done anything wrong, but got worried again. Alice was sophisticated. How could she give away her authority to someone else? Was it because Manlyn was so powerful that Alice had to listen to him? But with such an enormous underground city, Alice should not have acted so weak.
"Manlyn is the commander of Jagged Roses mercenary group. Jagged Manlyn and Rose Shinbela. They are both senior swordsmen. They are a couple too," Black Eleven walked up from behind and answered Anfey’s question.
"But this rose is going to wither," Ozzic said with a smile.
"Why?" Anfey asked.
"To please Master Alice, Manlyn has been keeping Shinbela in jail," Ozzic said.
"There is a jail?" Anfey asked in surprise.
"Of course. Manlyn was really interested in jails. After he got to Moramatch, the first thing he did was to build a jail," Ozzic said.
"Did Alice try to stop him? Jagged Roses mercenary group seemed very powerful," Anfey said calmly.
"Indeed. They have lost some people in the fight with death spirits, but the rest of the mercenary group was better than all of our old companions together," Ozzic said.
"Old companions?" Anfey asked.
"Yes, Orsie and others are here," Ozzic said. "Master, you came back at the right time. Manlyn has been after Master Alice for a while. Unfortunately, Master Alice did not like him. If you did not come back soon, I don’t think Master Alice could hold out any longer. I heard from the people in Jagged Roses mercenary group that Manlyn planned to have a wedding with Master Alice soon."
"Did Manlyn force Alice?" Anfey asked.
"No, Manlyn has been very respectful to Master Alice," Ozzic said.
"Ok, let’s go inside and talk." Anfey said slowly. He strode inside and saw two mercenaries in full armor getting out of a tent. A hand tried to grab them as they got out. The two mercenaries looked angry. They turned around and kicked people in the tent. A woman’s screaming came from the tent.
"What are they doing?" Anfey asked.
"They are the mercenaries in Jagged Roses. They are used to bullying everyone. This is nothing," Ozzic said.
"Ozzic, I did not see you being bullied by anyone before. Even you are no match for Manlyn. I thought you would at least choose to leave Moramatch," Anfey said.
"My companions and I all knew you are the real master in Moramatch. Master Alice has assured us that you would definitely come back," Ozzic said.
"What do you want to do now that I am back?" Anfey asked.
"Well, we will do whatever you ask us to do," Ozzic said.
"Is there anyone else close to Manlyn?" Anfey asked.
"People in the jail are mercenaries from other groups. Everyone hates Manlyn so much, but we have no other good options or place to go. We have to listen to him. If something happened to Manlyn, no one would help him." Ozzic knew how cruel Anfey could be. After hearing what Anfey said, he seemed to know what was going to happen.
They suddenly heard someone yelling in front of them. "Ozzic, without Master Manlyn’s permission, you cannot open the door. Do you want to die?" A group of mercenaries rushed over.